Yoshisaurus
Yoshisaurus (name meaning spendid reptile), aka Yoshi or yoshi, is an formerly extinct species of non-avian theropod dinosaur that live in South American and North American scrublands, praries, and forests during the Late Cretaceous from about 72.7 million years ago to 66 million years ago. The yoshi is a derived member of Abelisauridae, a family of theropods that mostly occupied the large predatorial niche in the southern continents, which once formed the supercontinent Gondwana, during the Cretaceous. Its closest relatives includes Carnotaurus, Giganotocarnotaurus, and Aurocarnotaurus (which may be the same species as Giganotocarnotaurus), and like them, yoshis have four short fingers on stubby useless arms. Just like the Aurocarnotaurus, yoshis also made it into North America, where they carved out their own niches in the Late Cretaceous. They are also the most agile of the Abelisaurids, being a swift slim lightly-built hunter almost as fast as a cheetah, but is also an ambush predator like a big cat and unlike cheetahs. They also have protofeathers on the backs of their necks and heads, further confirming that birds are a surviving group of (native) theropod dinosaurs (along with wounders). They also have large eyes to see very well in both day and night and are active at both times. They have long sticky frog-like chameleon-like tongues, which were (in its native range and timeline) evolved to hunt other small and medium-sized dinosaurs (including ornithopods, etc). They have bony armor all over their bodies (including each single tall spines going down their necks), presumably for protection against rivals and/or other predators. Even though they have the intelligence similar to a crow, they have advanced larynx more specialized than parrots to speak if trained. Ever since they were brought back and saved from the mass extinction caused by an asteroid impact and its effects in the Late Cretaceous, yoshis were found only in zoos and safari parks, but after some escaped from zoos and safari parks, they have quickly establish populations throughout both North and South America. In popular culture Yoshis are most commonly shown in Mario franchise, where they are depicted as surviving the mass extinction and live on to modern times (due to IRL's success story of rescuing yoshis from the mass extinction). However, there are many inaccuracies in the series. Yoshis in real life don't turn enemies into eggs after eating them, males do not lay eggs since only females lay eggs, and will only lay eggs if they're breeding. Also, the yoshi growth from hatchling to adult takes about 5-6 months for them to completely grow up. They are also shown in the Mario series as cute creatures that are omnivores, while in real life, yoshis are not cute and are dangerous, and yoshis can't ingest any plant matter, so they have to feed only on meat (insects young, fish, small-medium-sized animals, and carrion) instead. They also don't have working fingers nor pronated hands as how Mario series portrays, since real yoshis have useless arms and hands as usual for Abelisaurids, but that portrayal may be to make yoshis in the games playable. Yoshis in real life can't pull or eat things with their tongues larger than themselves nor larger than their normal prey items as how the games shows (like, for example, a yoshi feeding on bowser, a fictional dinosaur-like turtle). Yoshis in Mario series are shown with saddles instead of bony armor of real yoshis, but that may have been to make Mario's yoshis cute and/or the saddles are in fact cartoony amoured backs. Category:Species Category:Animals Category:Non-Sapient Species Category:Real Life Species Category:Cartoon Species Category:Video Game Species Category:Bipedal Species Category:Carnivores Category:Predators Category:Extinct Category:Revived